Days Without End: A Novel

Just let me say that this was a very enjoyable book. I will read more of Mr. Barry's works. Thomas Mcnulty and John Cole are two characters that will stay with you..."He looks like he swallowed a live rattlesnake and it's biting him from inside." Thomas Mcnulty!

I absolutely loved this book...beautiful prose...evocative...athmospheric.The story told through the narrative of Thomas McNulty captured the history of the American West over three decades. Often brutal, coarse and barbaric the story still depicted love, loyalty and the resilience of simple people. The central love relationship interjected here and there throughout the story was handled sensitively and depicted as part of life.

This is a very unusual book. The plot - as boiled down - is downright strange. Irish boy comes to America, meets American boy - they dress up as girls to perform (dance and flirt) in a frontier town pre-civil war; they fight Native Americans in the army just before the Civil War; they "adopt" (sort of) a Native American girl and go back to performing. They join the Union army when the Civil War breaks out, are captured and sent to the notorious Andersonville prison. Once released, they go to work on a farm owned by a former army buddy, reuniting with their adopted daughter. And then even stranger things happen.

Notwithstanding the outlandish plot, I plowed through this book with anticipation. It is beautifully written and, notwithstanding the violence recorded in its pages, the book has an almost serene feel to it.

I am not certain precisely what I take away from "Days without End" and if another author had written the same story, I probably would have passed. But it is Sebastian Barry's abilities as a writer and they way that he is able to draw a reader in that this an enjoyable experience. I think if Mr. Barry can write a compelling story with this plot, there is probably not anything he can't write about

For originality it gets a 5; for writing style, 5; for readability, 5; for accuracy of historical events, 5; for descriptions of massacres, 1. That's the problem. There is just too much violence and cruelty for me.

I made the mistake of not reading ALL the reviews before purchase! It wasn't until I went to read it that I discovered that the whole book glorified homosexuality!!! I liked it better when subject headings were given so that readers can stay clear of objectionable content!! I couldn't delete this book fast enough!!!!! Thankfully the book was almost free so I wasn't out a lot of money!!!! It may be "politically correct" to accept this conduct, but there are enough people who find it EXTREMELY OBJECTIONABLE, that topics like this that are more controversial should be noted in the book description! With a print book, you can flip through it to see what it's about, the drawback of ebooks is that you only have a publisher blurb, & reviews to give you an idea of content! Accurate metadata subject headings shoukd be given so consumers can make an informed choice so that they don't waste their money & purchase something not intended!!!

Whilst it takes a while to get to grips with the language of Thomas McNulty, the Irish narrator of this tale of brutal Mid West USA warfare, once in you realise how important it is that the author wrote as he did. The brutality, hardship and squalor of this story are brilliantly tempered by Thomas' humanity as well as flashes of delicious Irish humour. The only comment I will make is that although it is set in mid 19th century war torn America, I was slightly surprised at Thomas' liberal American expletives - an excess of "goddam"s which he must have picked up very quickly to replace those he was born with, though those are not absent. Plenty "Holy Mother of God"s or "Sweet Jesus"s and so on. But it is the descriptive richness of the prose that makes this book. Sebastian Barry has a way with words that makes reading even this rather grizzly tale a joy. Even one word does it - Thomas is describing his state of mind at one point after a particularly gruesome conflict says he is "rattling". Brilliant. "You're belching and the food comes up your gullet like it wants to say hello to the world again". I mean, how can you not want to read a book with lines like that ?

I just hope that Mr Barry is hard at work with the sequel.

There is a lot of good history here concerning America's war of extinction against native Americans, as well as the chaos and terrible toll taken by young soldiers in the Civil War. However, the voice of the narrator was uneven -- beautiful prose that an older, literate man might use, mixed in with "he ain't", "we was" etc. that a young man without much formal education might speak.

Beautifully written lyrical novel, shades of Cormac McCarthy's excellent "Blood Meridian" in it's savagery and violence.

From the Indian Wars through to the Civil War events are narrated by Thomas McNulty a poor emigrant from Ireland. Events unfold of his time as a young soldier of seventeen through to adulthood. It tells of his lifelong friendship with John Cole and their resilience and fortitude in a harsh and unforgiving environment. It's a novel of friendship, adversity in a land that was by no means kind.

Haven't read Barry before, this novel was confronting in parts but strongly delivered, visceral.

Timothy McNulty, the narrator, has a plain spoken voice mixed with humor and truth. I "heard" him for days after I finished this engrossing novel. Think Little Big Man with a Wyoming/Tennessee focus.

Truly a beautiful and original read. The broguish narrative only enhances its sensitivity, in relating a tale of love against a backdrop of the worst of human endeavour. Thomas's issues of identity are so subtly integrated into the narrative, and somehow evolve through genuine love as well as through issues of his own survival. I have not read such a compelling account of that era of American history; helps expain why America to this day still "picks" at those wounds. Fantastic read.

I really enjoy stories about the civil war. The author put an interesting twist on it. The characters were very real and believable. The close up look at the army and Indian battles were very realistic. I strongly recommend this book.

Interesting and unique take on invisible love, devotion and the hard choices of war.

If you are hungry for something that is entertaining and soulful; an account that you won't find in history books, this is it.

The realism of the constant struggle to survive, the endlessly despairing decisions required just to find your next meal, the simple pleasures encountered when one least expects.
It all came good in the end and was too hurried.

Rating: 3.0/5.0

I expected to love this book more than this. It is a good book, good story but to me I had some problems with it. With each good thing there was something that would water down that positive thing for me. I don't know if that was all intentional by the author or not. First thing I always love first person narration in most books, I feel it gives me more idea how the main character is feeling about the events and the other characters, but in this book even when there was a conversation between the characters there was no quotation marks and I keep reading "He says or I says etc" like many many times which was a bit annoying. I don't like this kind of format. I prefer a first person narration where it turns to a conversation when there is one instead of repeating He says again and again. I have read the book in my Kindle as an Ebook so I am not sure if there are quotation marks in the physical copy of the book. Another thing I have to complain about the format here is the long paragraphs. Sometimes the paragraphs felt long. A reader needs a break here and there but that kind of format went from the start of the book until the end. It was quite tedious.

One big plus point about this book is how the Indian and Civil wars have been explained in detail. Yes, they were hard to read at times as there were several brutal scenes that were total annihilation to the other race where women and children were killed without any mercy or humanity, but still to feel the atmosphere of the war was a good thing. Honestly there is a big part of me that felt no compassion at all to the main two characters for the crimes they did.

I was expecting this book to be more about the relationship between Thomas and John Cole, but it wasn't. Although the reader would know how Thomas felt about John I would not say the opposite was true. I felt their relationship had no depth and was very casual. The author did not even try to bring up that relationship in a gradual way as a build up to the readers, instead he just throw it on your face and the first thing we read that they are together is when Thomas said that they did the F word together and then slept! I don't know but I expected this kind of relation to be deeper provided the period this story was set in. Honestly, because of the way how their relationship was introduced I kept feeling that the story was set in a different time frame than our times, like a dystopian or something else. Only the war scenes brought me back again to that era. The relationship perhaps was just a dream for the main character. At least that is what I will think because it was too shallow to be true in this way during that time.

A lot of my friends loved this book and I can see lots of reasons to be loved. It is a good piece of literature provided you are OK with the above points I have mentioned. I went into this book expecting a masterpiece after reading its synopsis but I would not say I liked it as I expected. You give it try and hopefully you will like it more than I did.

They were just teenagers when they met, Thomas McNulty and John Cole, sheltering under a hedge from the sudden downpour of rain. Both thin and starving, they decided two had better chance at surviving than one alone and became firm friends, and lovers, and partners.

Together they joined the army, as a means of survival really, and found themselves at war first against the Indians, and then wearing the blue of the North against the Confederates in the Civil War.

Thomas from Ireland and John Cole with Indian blood in his veins, doing what they had to do to survive.
Survival became all the more important after they took on a young Indian girl, who became more daughter than maid.
They were a family. And family, for Thomas and John Cole, meant everything.

The story was told through Thomas, and we saw every bit of horror he endured through his war years and beyond, for hardship seemed to follow him. Despite being told in first person perspective however, there was a sense of detachment to the trauma; perhaps a protective mechanism. How else could one survive such times with life and limb, mind and soul, intact?

There was a sense of distance too between the reader and the characters. Thomas was open with us about his love for John Cole; their relationship was not a secret, nor was it embellished. It just was. But this story was about Thomas. John Cole was there, he was always there, but I didn't really get to know him as much as I would have liked.

Thomas spoke unemotionally, he spoke factually, about war, about death, and about John Cole. Perhaps simply a sign of the times, or from the writing style itself, but this created a barrier to me investing in the characters. The very fact that Thomas called John Cole 'John Cole' the entire length of the narrative also served to keep me at a distance.

"They don't run over this darkness to love us. They want our lives and to cut out our hearts and murder us and still us and stop us. I have a big sergeant trying to get his Bowie into me and I am obliged to run his stomach with the bayonet."

The prose certainly was stylised, although I wouldn't describe it as beautiful.
There were moments of poetry:

"Moonlight pouring down through the scrubby oaks as if a thousand dresses."
"It is so silent you could swear the moon is listening. The owls are listening and the wolves."
"Dark fields and troubled crops, the big sky growing melancholy with evening."

And whilst I appreciate the skill of writing in such a way to transport the reader in time and place, I never felt comfortable with the writing style, it was something I was constantly aware of. This distracted me from being entirely engrossed in the story.

Days Without End has been longlisted for The Man Booker Prize 2017. I will be surprised if it doesn't make the shortlist; it has already won the Costa Book Award for Novel and the Costa Book of the Year in 2016, and the Walter Scott Prize in 2017.

Whilst I didn't love this novel, I do understand how it has received many glowing reviews. It certainly does provide a unique perspective on a much-written-about time in history. But it isn't for everyone, and for me it was just ok.

I was a Booker-Phobe I have my pretensions, so as a omnivorous reader of some long experience,, I approached the Booker lists with confidence. After fighting for years and years (all the conversation and vitriol on my side of the book) with several of the winners over the last ...um...while, I found out I was dumb as a brick.. Man Bookers are for cerebral thinkers, not people like me who mud wrestle with history and the meaning of the human condition. But I read so much for so long that I developed not just a fondness, but a requirement for good writing on my bedside table and kitchen table and in my 'office'. I have tossed wildly popular books through the window (metaphorically: I love books too much to actually throw them away, no matter how vulgar and badly behaved). I want my historians to know how to write. I want my novelists to use language as both a tool and as the jewelry for the brain. But I sometimes sample, with trepidation, the shortlist for the Booker.

OH MY GOD. Mr. Barry writes. Beautifully. Lyrically. The beauty of his language is counterpoint to the horrors in his stories (which is what is sort of feels like). He makes me want to cry for his control of language used to reach the parts of his characters (and perhaps ourselves) that rarely see light. His story makes me want to cry on its merits alone. His descriptions of massacre are both horrifically clear and entirely human. The joy of battle, and the regret once the outcome has arrived. His choice of words make the situations more vivid in part because he nearly always is deeply emotional even when he is being matter of fact. I can't think of another writer who balances emotion and realism so well and with a sense of effortlessness. There are bad guys in the story but most are somewhat bad, and partly good. Or there is the major who is the identified good guy, a humanitarian until, in the worst of circumstances, he crumbles, his empathy and understanding and intellect gone under the weight of reality. Yet Thomas, Yet Thomas, our narrator, keeps a bit of his innocence even as he describes and abhors the worst of what humans can do to each other.. Thomas loves, and the loving balances the brutality. Yet Thomas, our narrator, keeps a bit of his innocence even as he describes and abhors the worst of what humans can do to each other.. Thomas loves, and the loving balances the brutality. Ridiculous you say. Well, read the book!
I am in awe of this writer, and very much want to invite him over for a pint. I am out of superlatives. If you love writing, and don't mind a few tears at one spot or another, read this man's book. It's brilliant. .I am offended he was shortlisted for Booker. He should have won.

OH MY GOD. Mr. Barry writes. Beautifully. Lyrically. The beauty of his language is counterpoint to the horror of his story. He makes me want to cry for his control of language used to reach the parts of his characters( and perhaps ourselves) that rarely see light. . His story makes me want to cry His descriptions of massacre are both horrifically clear and entirely human. The joy of battle, and the regret once the outcome has arrived. . . His choice of words make the situations more vivid in part because he nearly always is deeply emotional even when he is being matter of fact.. I can't think of another writer who balances emotion and realism so well and with a sense of effortlessness. There are bad guys in the story but most are somewhat bad, and partly good. Or there is the major who is a the identified good guy, a humanitarian until, in the worst of circumstances, he crumbles, his empathy and understanding and intellect gone under the weight of reality. Yet Thomas, our narrator, keeps a bit of his innocence even as he describes and abhors the worst of what humans can do to each other. Thomas loves, and the loving balances the brutality. Not fairly. It’s not Even Stephen. But probably honestly. Ridiculous you say. Well, read the book!

I am in awe of this writer, and very much want to invite him over for a pint. I am out of superlatives. If you love writing, and don't mind a few tears at one spot or another, read this man's book. It's brilliant. .I am offended he was shortlisted for Booker. He should have won.
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When I first picked up DAYS WITHOUT END, I put it down after reading the first three chapters, so drained of emotion that I doubted I could continue. But then I recalled having a similar gut reaction to Cormac McCarthy’s ALL THE PRETTY HORSES. Larry McMurtry served up the same sensory feast in LONESOME DOVE. So I picked it up again and dove in.

Young Thomas McNulty arrived in America on a fever ship, the sole family survivor of the potato famine in the early 19th century. He has been reduced to sinew and bone and determination by the time he makes his way to Missouri, where he meets John Cole, a handsome lad younger than himself. Neither has seen the age of 16. Their stories intertwine as they find employment disguised as dance hall “ladies,” treated with respect by the rough miners. Due to their small stature and lack of beard, they earn their keep in a St. Louis saloon, until puberty robs their youth and they join American troopers. Promises of a uniform and regular meals appeal to them, and they face whatever awaits their future. It is a fate that will lead them to California, then back to the Northern Plains to fight in the Indian Wars. Seasoned by years of military life, they later join the Union Army in the Civil War.

How can a novel that runs 259 pages deliver so much? Sebastian Barry’s writing is so vibrant, passionate and graphic that it drives to the very center of your soul. It assaults all of your senses: from descriptions of the blistering heat and bitter cold of the endless prairies, and the torrential rains that wipe out a half brigade of solders in mere moments, to the silent beauty of distant mountain peaks that can deliver a killer avalanche on a sunny day. He describes the bloodlust and thrill of a buffalo hunt that turns to deep remorse for the loss of a calf in the melee. When revenge on an Indian village following a raid on a settler’s town is revealed to have been triggered by the delayed arrival of promised food to the starving tribe, ties are broken and whole towns are destroyed by hatred, starvation and prejudice. Barry drives it all home in breathtaking, lyrical prose that leaves us in awe of the mind that can create such beauty and brutality, often within the same paragraph.

This narrative has become the backbone of American history until you think there can’t possibly be anything more to write about it. Some, like the aforementioned works by McMurtry and McCarthy, transcend the concept of the western genre to literature. Is it a coincidence that these three compelling novelists are Irish? Perhaps it is because of Ireland’s violent past and more than a century of bigotry in America that Irish writers are able to see both sides of natives and outsiders taking lands.

Barry said in a recent interview that the Irish “go to America not as foreigners, we know it already, because America is the Rome of our world… it is our culture too.” He goes on to say, “If I had to understand myself as an American, it would be dishonest and wrong not to predicate the whole history of America upon this violence against Native Americans.” He feels that he pulls the curtain back on the epic romance of the American West to reveal the brutal injustices committed in the business of empire making.

This book, in which Thomas and John are lovers, was inspired by and dedicated to Barry’s son, who came out as gay recently and on whose behalf Barry advocated for LGBT marriage rights during the Irish marriage referendum that passed in 2015. He says of his approach to writing the American West from the perspective of two young gay men: “It’s as if I’ve shooed all the John Ford actors out of the way and recast it.”

Sebastian Barry has received numerous Irish literary awards and is shortlisted for two others (and deservedly so) for DAYS WITHOUT END.

Reviewed by Roz Shea

So happy you asked! Here is a book not to miss! Days Without End by Sebastian Barry

https://www.the store.com/Days-Without-End-Sebastian-Barry/dp/014311140X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520871885&sr=1-1&keywords=Days+without+end

The brief the store summary, many contemporary reviews, and publisher's marketing material, all neglect to add that the boys - who meet in their teens - become and remain lovers until the book ends. By then they are in their 40's and finally making a settled life together after harrowing adventures and several cliff-hanging incidents. The world of 19th century America the boys inhabit largely ignores, but cannot be oblivious to, their close and continual association, though they are mostly discreet. This believable historic atmosphere is one of the great strengths of the book, it's capture of a time before "gay" was invented, and people simply were who they were, especially miners, laborers, soldiers. The writing is deliberately archaic, colloquial, and anti-erudite, yet loving, wise, and tender. It casts a spell. The uniquely poetic text is very moving, yet takes one on the rampage of youth too. The author has dedicated the book to his gay teenage son, for obvious reasons.

Days Without End really is as good as everyone says it is. I was a little sceptical but eventually tried it because so many people had said it was great – and it is. Truly excellent.

This is the story of Thomas McNulty who left Ireland like so many others around 1850 because of "the hunger" to seek a new life in the New World. Narrated by Thomas himself looking back in later years, it's a tale of hardship and survival and of life in the US Army before, during and after the Civil War. It has important things to say about many things, including friendship, the companionship and sometimes divided loyalties of soldiers, the meaning of family and also a powerful, enduring love between two men. It's brilliantly done; I found it utterly gripping and often profoundly moving.

What makes this so special for me is Thomas's voice, which is a wonderful mixture of the slightly rough, naïve and uneducated and also the evocatively poetic. I'm no expert on the language of that time and place, but it rang absolutely true to me and I genuinely felt as though Thomas was sitting with me and telling his story. He evokes the real feel of the Old West brilliantly, with all its hardships and some pleasures, and the terror, exultation and horror of battle is as well drawn as I've ever read. Some is hard to read because of its content, but never because of the telling. The appalling massacres of Native Americans and the terrible battles of the Civil War kept me absolutely riveted and often feeling wrung-out afterward from the intensity of them. It's never overblown and often rather understated in a way, but utterly gripping and immensely powerful; I felt as though I was there at Thomas's shoulder, feeling all his complexity of emotion.

I marked lots of sentences and passages which I liked and which give a flavour of the book's style. As a couple of brief examples: "Dark fields and troubled crops, the big sky growing melancholy with evening." Or of a Catholic army padre who is liked by men of all denominations, "A good heart carries across fences. Fr Giovanni. Small man wouldn't be much good for fighting but he good for tightening those screws that start to come loose on the engine of a man when he's facing God knows what."

Quite simply, this is a wonderfully involving read, superbly written; it is one of the best things I have read for some time and I cannot understand why it didn't at least make the Booker Shortlist. Too enjoyably readable, perhaps? Very warmly recommended.

Days Without End is a first-person account of life in the American West spanning about the late 1840s through the late 1860s. Thomas McNulty was orphaned by the potato famine in Ireland, and he survived abysmal conditions both in Ireland and during his journey across the Atlantic. But Thomas's story really begins when he meets another wandering boy, John Cole, as they shelter together under a hedge during a violent rainstorm. The two quickly become inseparable, and they begin their colorful wanderings together--from working as "dancing girls" in a frontier saloon to fighting Native Americans on the frontier and beyond.

The story is violent at times, but so is much of America's history, especially as it pertains to the treatment of Native Americans. This is not light and easy reading, so be forewarned. Thomas's voice is both poetic and authentic; while he has little formal education, Thomas has a way with words. The reasons for my 3 star review were twofold and contain POSSIBLE SPOILERS: I could have done with a little more story at the end; the tale ends on a note of promise, but I for one would have liked to read a few more pages of Thomas's journey. And I also would have appreciated a little more of the love story that is at the heart of this book.

Irish immigrant Thomas McNulty met John Cole when both were homeless children struggling to survive on their own. They banded together, willing to do anything to earn money. Their first job was dressing as women to dance with miners, starting something that percolated in both young men's hearts.

As they grow too old to look as fresh and young and female as needed, they enlist in the U. S. Army, moving out West to fight Indians struggling to keep the waves of white settlers from taking root. This is when the author slowly reveals that Thomas and John Cole, as he is always referred to, are more than just close friends.

Thomas, who relates the story of their lives together, relates how they acquire a young Indian girl renamed Winona, leave the Army to work on the stage. Thomas becoming a woman once again to great success. Sadly, the War Between the States begins, pulling the two men back into military service as Union soldiers. Things don't go well, friends dying, capture and imprisonment in Andersonville. They are on the verge of death when released in a prisoner exchange. Their friends and Winona nurse them slowly back to health until they search for a new life. An offer from Tennessee has the three heading to help restore a tobacco farm. Life should've settled down then, but both John Cole and, especially, Thomas have more trials to struggle through before they can have their Happily Ever After.

I saw a write-up on this book in Time Magazine and I'm so glad I did. The writing is in first person, jumping about a bit just as if you truly are listening to Thomas tell his story. It is a love affair, one that works for both men, even through the trials and tribulations that they face. Honestly, it is beautiful and I cannot recommend it highly enough. 5 out of 5.

2.5 Stars

Just after his 17th birthday, Thomas McNulty and his friend, John Cole, decide to enlist in the US Army as a way to escape their bleak home lives. This decision takes them through service during the Indian and Civil Wars. While they may have anticipated great adventures, they had no way of knowing the horrors of war that awaited them.

The first half of the novel focuses on the Indian War years, as the boys not only learn basic soldiering, but also how to survive all the different types of weather and terrain as they march or ride across the country. Mother Nature brings them battles of her own in the form of vicious heat over the flatlands, freezing winters in camps with beyond meager supplies, fever epidemics, and food shortages (even the horses are starving to death).

Racism of the day is another strong theme in this work. Though not written as one of the novel's racist characters himself, Thomas points out to the reader various examples he sees throughout the course of his life. For one, an Army acquaintance of Thomas and John's falls in love with an Ogalala Sioux woman, fathers a son with her. Thomas's response to the news: "I guess love laughs at history a little." Then there's John himself, who is part Native American... apparently that "part" is visible enough in his appearance for him to get a dose of hate speech directed his way. There's also the matter of Thomas and his friends working at a theater between tours of duty, a job that occasionally has them doing minstrel shows in blackface. I'd also mention that there is a description near the end of the book where the men remember coming upon 30 black people who had recently been hanged together. I warn you, this description is mildly graphic.

In truth, there's a strong dose of graphic material throughout the whole novel. Chapter 2 is mostly about hunting, killing, and cutting up buffalo. Chapter 3 focuses on massacring Indians. The gritty, graphic nature of the writing only increases as you approach the closing chapters of the story.

Chapter 12 starts the Civil War experiences, sending Thomas and John to Boston, Massachusetts for training. There Thomas meets a fellow Irish immigrant. They swap stories of their "coming over" experience on the boats, giving the reader a grim look at the reality of what families risked to get here for the chance at a new life. It is through this meeting that Thomas ponders on the realization of just how often Irish men were treated like total scum... until the Army needed soldiers for their causes.

The story is told in Thomas's first person perspective, but as an older man now retired and living in Tennessee, looking back on his wild youth. Said youth starts in Ireland, but (after he loses his entire family) soon brings him to the US as a teenage immigrant, eventually deciding to settle in Missouri. If you struggle with reading stories written in dialects, I warn you that this one is written in a kind of "country boy" voice that only gets stronger as your reading progresses. There's also a healthy dose of cursing -- some used just as a matter of speech, some as actual intended profanity in the situation.

Thomas also describes what it was like being a gay man -- his lover being his friend John -- in this era, with a penchant for cross dressing. Every so often we also get a glimpse of his sassiness, such as his thoughts on his short stature: "I'm a little man right enough but maybe the best dagger is a short one sometimes." (Meanwhile, John is 6'3.)

The plot didn't keep my attention all that well. There is something to Barry's writing that I could appreciate. The verbiage itself is solid enough, Thomas gives the reader a good laugh here and there, there are lots of pretty lines -- such as "our breath is flowing out like lonesome flowers that die on the air" -- but something was still lacking. I just didn't find myself emotionally committing to these characters, as far as their life stories go. What I do give points for are the themes / topics Barry leaves you to ponder on, such as racism of the era, the topic of immigration, or my favorite, the dichotomy that extends to exist within the Irish spirit. The sweetness vs. the hellfire. There's a whole passage on this that really rang true with me and had me nodding in recognition!

I had not read any books by Sebastian Barry before, and when I read some of the reviews of this book I realised that the author has been chronicling, in some of his novels, the story of two Irish families. One of the protagonists of this story, and its narrator, Thomas McNulty, is a descendant of one of these families. Rest assured that you don’t need to have read Barry’s other novels to enjoy this one (I didn’t find out about this until I had finished reading it) but now that I know I confess I’d like to see how they all relate to each other.
Thomas is a young boy who ends up in America fleeing the Irish famine and we follow him through his many adventures. Very early on he meets a slightly older boy, John Cole, and they are inseparable throughout the story, or almost. In XIX century America they live through many experiences: they take to the stage dressed as girls to entertain miners (who have no women around); when they are old enough they join the army and fight in the Indian Wars. They later go back to the stage, this time with Thomas playing the girl (a part he enjoys), John her suitor and an Indian girl they’ve adopted, Winona, as their side act. As times get harder, they go back to the army, this time fighting for the North in the Civil War. And… it goes on.
The book is narrated in the first person by Thomas, who has a very peculiar voice, full of expressions appropriate to the historical era, some Irish terms, colloquialisms, witty and humorous saying, poetic passages and amateur philosophical reflexions. In some ways it reminded me of novels narrated by tricksters or other adventurers (I’ve seen people mention Huckleberry Finn, although the characters and the plot are quite different and so is the language used), but although Thomas is somebody determined to survive and easy-going, he never wishes anybody harm and seems warm and kind-hearted, even if he sometimes ends up doing things he lives to regret. I know some readers don’t enjoy first-person narrations. Whilst it can put you right inside the skin of the character, it also makes it more difficult to get to know other characters and if you don’t like the way a character talks, well, that’s it. Although I really enjoyed Thomas and the use of language, I know it won’t be for everybody, so I recommend checking it out first. Some reviews say that he is too articulate, but although we don’t know all the details of the character’s background, he is clearly literate and corresponds and talks to people from all walks of life through the book (poets, actors, priests, the major and his wife). And he is clearly clever, quick, and a good observer.
Although the story is set in America in mid-XIX century and recounts a number of historical events, these are told from a very special perspective (this is not History with a capital H, but rather an account of what somebody who had to live through and endure situations he had no saying on felt about the events), and I this is not a book I would recommend to readers looking for a historical treatise. Yes, Thomas and John Cole love each other and have a relationship through the whole book and Thomas wears a dress often. There is little made of this and Thomas is better at talking about events and other people than at discussing his own feelings (and that, perhaps, makes the snippets he offers us all the more touching). Although perhaps the historical accuracy of some parts of the story (mostly about the characters’ relationship) stretches the imagination, the descriptions of the battles of the Indian Wars and the Civil War, and especially the way those involved in them felt, are powerful and evocative, horrible and heart-wrenching. There are no true heroes or villains, just people who play their parts as cogs in machines they don’t understand. (There are funny moments like when quite a racist character discovers that he’s fighting in the pro-abolition side. His reason for fighting is because the major he’d fought under in the Indian Wars asked him to. He never thought to ask what the war was about). Thomas reflects at times upon the similarities between what is happening there and what had happened in Ireland and does not miss the irony of the situation.
I had problems choosing some quotations from the book as I’d highlighted quite a lot of it, but here go:
If you had all your limbs they took you. If you were a one-eyed boy they might take you too even so. The only pay worse than the worst pay in America was army pay.
We were two wood-shavings of humanity in a rough world.
The bottom was always falling out of something in America far as I could see.
Every little thing she says has grammar in it, she sounds like a bishop.
Things just go on. Lot of life is just like that. I look back over fifty years of life and wonder where the years went. I guess they went like that, without me noticing much. A man’s memory might have only a hundred clear days in it and he has lived thousands. Can’t do much about that.
How we going to count all the souls to be lost in this war?
Men so sick they are dying of death. Strong men to start that are hard to kill.
Killing hurts the heart and soils the soul.
I loved the story and the characters and I hope to read more novels by Barry in the future. I recommend it to readers who enjoy historical fiction and westerns, with a big pinch of salt, those who love narrators with a distinctive voice, and fans of Barry. From now on I count myself among them.
Thanks to Faber and Faber and to NetGalley for offering me an ARC copy of this book that I freely chose to review.

4.0 of 5 stars –
I’m a fan of gay historical westerns, and this even had a cover that captured my interests. I love the romantic landscape paintings of the west from that time; this one by the foremost such artist, Albert Bierstadt. Like the painting, this story had a rustic natural beauty, full of details, raw but also idealized, with two frontiersmen in the foreground looking out on an immense landscape of America.

The sense of it was revealed early on: “Time was not something then we thought of as an item that possessed an ending, but something that would go on forever … I am thinking of the DAYS WITHOUT END of my [youth] … Fully alive in life and content. … And it is not like that now.”

Thus Sebastian Barry’s MC (Tom) told his tale in a wonderfully colloquial language that was easy on the ear, sometimes with a down-home philosophical bent, about his immigrant youth to his later life, and in between traversing both hard and joyful times. Like telling a good story on the back porch, this was slow paced; but it still wound its way nicely with twists and turns that kept it interesting. I did find it a bit long in the tooth in the middle; then all a sudden, it picked up and I found myself at the end, and not without shedding a tear or two. So eventually, Barry struck the right chord between painting the picture and moving the action forward.

This was not light fare, in that along with credible characters and action, it was historically accurate and realistic; and sometimes such reality was hard to take. At times there was violence, swearing, off-beat maybe uncomfortable diversity, questionable morality, people who weren’t likable … all a reason I liked it so much. Poignantly, I was reading this over the Columbus\Indigenous Peoples Day weekend; and while savagery was portrayed on both sides, the treatment of Native Americans was disturbing enough to make the case to recognize the latter.

But thank goodness all this was balanced out by many good moments. I grew to care for the Tom and his partner (John), and yearned for their HEA. Tbh, so much so, that I would have wanted more on John and the relationship.

And that was my major disappointment: this had so much good detail and description of the historical aspects, but in stark contrast lacked that for the gay feelings and relationships. Maybe that was the downside of the first person narrative; because the author was true to Tom’s voice, and he wouldn’t be one to go on about that much, either in an emotional, philosophical, or insightful way. But, as just one example, he at least would express concern for the safety of his lover during a battle, or feelings in softer moments. This was an opportunity missed.

Even still, this was quite a yarn. As Tom might say in his humble way, nothin’ special, just plain ole storytellin’.

Our narrator, Thomas McNulty, is a young Irish immigrant alone in 1850s America when he meets John Cole, another boy who is destined to be his friend, companion and lover throughout his life. This is the story of their lives and, through them, the story of this period of American history. The boys work for a time as “girls” in a saloon, where they are paid to dance with lonely miners, but when they become too old to be convincing, they go off to join the army. Soon they are involved in the on-going conflicts with the Native Americans and later will be sucked into the Civil War.

When I finished reading this book, I had rather mixed feelings about it – the writing is often wonderful and Barry undoubtedly brings the army scenes to vivid and gory life. But truthfully, my eyebrows rose when the boys dressed up as girls and all the miners treated them as courteously as if they were really girls (not that I imagine they would have treated real saloon girls particularly courteously anyway); and continued to rise throughout all the gender identity stuff with which the book is liberally packed – yes, pun very much intended. I had no idea the early Americans were so politically correct as to accept transvestitism and transsexuality with barely a disapproving comment – how terribly inclusive they were back in those days! It's suggested more than once that in fact all these rough, tough settlers were secretly enthralled by the idea of men appearing on stage dressed as women, finding them more sexually alluring and exciting than actual women. Hmm! Maybe it really was like that – how would I know? - but I found it pretty unconvincing, regardless of the skill in the story-telling.

What I found much more convincing were the soldiering aspects. The narrator, Thomas McNulty, is an uneducated man, though not unintelligent, and is entirely uninterested in politics, so that we get his view of events from a purely human angle, with no overt polemics. Clearly, Barry himself takes the modern view that what the settlers did to the Native Americans was a horrific atrocity, but he does an excellent job of showing how it may have been viewed differently by those involved; especially those who, like Thomas and John Cole, were at the bottom of the pile in terms of power – only obeying orders, as has been the excuse used for war-crimes for all the long centuries of history. At the time of this story, the struggle between the races has been going on for many years, so that it's easy for the participants not to look for original causes – instead, each side has suffered tragedies that become excuses for revenge. Barry shows the horrors of battle and massacres in all their cruel and bloody detail and the power of his language makes these passages vivid and often deeply moving. Unfortunately there are so many of these incidents, though, that in the end I found them becoming repetitive and as a result the power diminished as the book progressed.

Barry also does a good job of showing how ordinary soldiers get drawn into wars they don't necessarily understand nor feel strongly about. Thomas and John Cole end up on the Unionist side during the Civil War, but only because that's where their commanding officers lead them. There is a feeling that they don't really know what they're fighting for and would as easily have fought as rebels had they happened to be in one of the Confederate regiments when the war started. As a political animal, I was rather disappointed that there wasn't more about the causes of the Civil War but that, I believe, was an intentional decision and worked well in the context of the book.

Not content with dragging current liberal fixations with gender identity into it, Barry also has a shot at making some points about race – specifically, about the position of Native Americans in this new world. Though I found this aspect more credible, I didn't feel he handled it particularly deftly or in any great depth – it felt to me rather tacked on as though he felt it ought to be there rather than being something he felt strongly about. The main Native American character, Winona, never came to life for me – she seems to be merely a foil about whom a few “points” could be made, and a hook on which to hang the loose plot.

In fact, the characterisation in general didn't do much for me. At a late stage, Thomas says of John Cole “I never think bad of John, just can't. I don't even know his nature. He a perpetual stranger and I delight in that.” I too felt I still didn't know his nature, but my delight in that fact was somewhat less profound.

So, given all my criticisms, it's fair to wonder why I'm still giving the book 3½ stars (rounded up). Firstly, the prose is mostly excellent, often beautiful, frequently moving, and I'm always more willing to forgive a good deal of other weaknesses if the writing thrills me. Secondly, I half read, half listened to this book, and the narration by Aidan Kelly is quite wonderful. The book is written in what is clearly supposed to be an uneducated Irish voice, with lots of grammatical and punctuation quirks, and can actually feel quite like hard work sometimes on the written page. But Kelly shows how, when read aloud, it sounds absolutely natural, as if an Irishman were indeed verbally telling the tale. Kelly brings out all the beauty in the prose, and the contrasts in humour, horror, sorrow and love within the story. It's a remarkable performance, and I found myself actually preferring to listen than to read, sometimes going back to listen to a passage I had read to see how Kelly interpreted it.

Overall, therefore, despite finding it quite deeply flawed in terms of credibility and characterisation, my experience of reading/listening to it was an enjoyable one, and so in the end I would recommend it.

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Faber & Faber Ltd.

I became interested in this book through a Terry Gross interview of the author, Sebastian Barry. In that piece Barry noted his desire to honor his son’s coming out as gay by making the main character of his novel a gay man. I mentioned this to a friend who soon after had the store ship a copy of the novel to me. Barry’s intent was noble, but one he is not able to accomplish well.

While Thomas McNulty, the main character, is indeed gay, and has a long relationship with John Cole, we hear nothing about that relationship other than surface incidentals. Barry is unable to get inside the mind and heart of his characters: they are stock cut-out figures created to suit the sweep of his saga of the McNulty family. While one likes Thomas, one does not understand him.

The language is, as others have noted, very lyrical and sweeping. At times it is breathtaking, both in the beauty described, and the horrors. The novel is written as a first person narrative, through the voice of Thomas, a relatively unschooled Irish immigrant. While I might credit the lyricism to the supposed “innate lyricism” of the Irish, I find Thomas too frequently using words (such as nonetheless) that seem very inconsistent with Thomas’ limited education.

Those flaws made this a difficult book to read: I could not understand the gestalt of the main character, he was too much of a lyrical cardboard cutout, nor could I believe his advanced language skills. Thus my three star rating. It does not encourage me to read other works by Barry.

Thomas McNulty, an Irish immigrant, tells the story of his life in the western frontier over a couple of decades. It begins when he meets John Cole, and, as young teenagers, they are hired as female dancers to entertain miners. When they get too old, they move onto the US Army where they encounter Native Americans and go to war against them. Their wonderings eventually take them into the Civil War where they fight on the Union side and then out west again where they, once again, encounter the Native Americans. Underpinning the narrative is the fact that they have a love relationship with each other as Tom eventually assumes the more feminine of the two. However, as Tom narrates, their affair is very natural and matter of fact. Nobody really notices or appears to give it much thought. A young captured Native American girl, Winona, becomes their unofficially adopted daughter and this actually causes more of a stir than their homosexual relationship. There is much blood and stabbings in their adventures. They kill many of the enemy on all fronts and even wind up in Andersonville prison.
DAYS WITHOUT END is a long frolicking tale filled with scenes of action and adventure and improbable escapes. Yet, realistic characters and relationships not only bind together the story, but raise it up to a high literary standard. It can be read as an adventure book of the old west or as a coming of age novel, or as a spot on literary historical drama. However it is read, it is a truly compellingly told tale and one that will keep the pages tuning. Highly recommended.

Days Without End was recommended to me and so I got it from the library. Once gotten, however, I could not recall who had suggested it and I was so put off by the cover-art and jacket copy (both of which turned out to be very poor predictors of what the book was about), I kept moving it to the bottom of my stack and was considering returning it without reading.

Then, I finished Elizabeth Strout’s Anything Is Possible [click here], which I five-star-plus adored, and I knew from past experience that when I love a book that much, the next one (or two or three) are going to get short-shrift, not measure up in comparison, and so I thought, “Well, okay then, let’s go ahead and start this since I probably won’t like it anyway.”

Was I ever wrong. (Well, yes, in fact, I am often wrong — but wait, that’s another kind of blog post. Or, maybe, not.)

In the 1850’s Thomas McNulty, who watched his entire family succumb to the to the Great Famine in Ireland, emigrates to America when Irish immigrants suffered the sort of bigotry Muslims now suffer from the ignoramus-tr*mpist class(less) hordes. In his early teens, he dives under a hedge in Missouri to escape a rainstorm, and it is there fate throws him up against the even younger John Cole, who, too, has been living on his own, having left his family and home at age twelve. From page two it is clear their connection lasts a lifetime:

Thank God John Cole was my first friend in America and so in the army too and the last friend for that matter. He was with me nearly all through this exceeding surprising Yankee sort of life which was good going in every way.

McNulty lives in this nearly comma-free, rough-hewn, plainspoken reality, the patois of which Sebastian Barry has artfully crafted so the deceptive simplicity of the voice in contrast to the depth and emotional complexity of the story is exultantly atonal, inviting the reaction, “what is this unexpected, unusual, and jarring, yet beautiful music?”

McNulty and Cole love one another. From their early employment as faux-female barroom hostesses selling dances and sexual favors, to their faux-adoption of a Native American child whose people they have had a role in slaughtering, to their attempted escape from a lifetime of mercenary soldiering to a farm life as husband and wife, McNulty unapologetically and without angst in skirts, they are quietly lovers, partners, companions, a couple.

While McNulty and Cole’s union might have felt anachronistic in less capable hands, Sebastian Barry manages to make it as believable and visceral as he does the haunting brutality of the lives his characters lead, the milieu of violence and hunger and the treacherous landscape of fealty to the truth of one’s self.

The story is deftly relevant without being sententious, a poetic exploration of the shapes family, love, gender, and violence can take in a life, and the rewards and losses of one’s odyssey through that life in an often unfriendly world.

Sebastian Barry writes a story of an orphaned Irish boy, Thomas, who finds his identity and his life out on the mid-19th century American frontier. Barry's ability to develop the protagonist's starling and loving personality and poetic voice to life without betraying the character's humble origins and plain thinking is a major achievement. Meanwhile, the author's insights into the beauty, violence, terror and complexity that rocked America to its very core are astonishing and his artistry makes you want to weep and laugh and shout with anger - sometimes all at once.

The plot sounds benign enough: the boy, Thomas, finds a fast friend, John Cole. in the brush while making their ways westward as kids. The two quickly become each other's home and heart and they make a life together, sometimes treading the boards (their first jobs are as "professional girls," hired to dance with men at a respectable bar on the frontier) but more often working as soldiers, first in the Indian wars of mid-century and then in the Civil War (fighting for Massachusetts to the behest of their former commander). Barry's evocative and terrifying descriptions of war from Thomas's perspective leave one breathless and wild eyed; some of the best war writing I've ever read.

Spoilers ahead:
The true heart and soul of the book, however, is Thomas's love for John Cole (a mutual and - and his natural proclivity for female dress. The two eventually even marry, with Thomas taking on his female persona of Thomasina. Along the way, the two wind up parenting a Sioux girl, and together they make themselves a kind of family.

So many adventures abound in this book and the writing is so beautiful that you never want the story to end. And it doesn't close with the proverbial "click," which left me tearful and mad and full of wonder all at once.

Whether you're looking for an action-packed Western; a story of America itself in all its confusing, agonizing glory; a book about finding oneself and one's Meaning over the course of a lifetime; or a narrative that normalizes the pure love between two youngsters who became all the other had in the world, this book is worth a read.

Barry has many gifts and he used them wisely, creating a narrative and a character so utterly believable that you'd swear this was based in historical reality if you didn't know better. A captivating, important, nuanced read. Going on my favorites shelf for sure!

Days Without End is a poetical, historical novel, set largely on the American frontier in the mid nineteenth century; its themes are love and survival. The two principal characters are Thomas McNulty, the narrator, an Irish immigrant, aged about 15, initially, and John Cole, a homeless boy of about the same age, from New England. Their tale begins as dancing girls - yes, boys dressed as girls - in a mining town saloon where they offered the apparent fantasy of women to rough, woman-less men. They then join the army, which meant growing up with soldiers in hostile geography made all the more dangerous by the presence of Indians, a largely unwilling enemy. Thomas and John face near-constant hardship of savage fighting, bad weather, poor food and non-existent pay, but they find a mission and true comradeship in the army. An Indian girl is captured, domesticated by the fort commander's wife and assigned as servant to Thomas and John, who are then drawn into the Civil War, fighting on the Union side through battles which amounted to human slaughter. At the end of an army enlistments, Thomas, John and Winona, the Indian girl, who is treated as John's daughter, settle temporarily in Grand Rapids where they are entertainers, but they are drawn back into the Civil War, leaving Winona in Grand Rapids. They are taken prisoners by the Southern Army, and live through terrible hardship, but eventually find their way back to Grand Rapids, from which the three of them set out to help a homesteader in Tennessee. But peace is elusive: Winona is wanted in a hostage exchange for the daughter of the fort commander. Thomas accompanies her, and, after a bloody fight in which he kills an army officer, he returns her to the Tennessee homestead. But then, Thomas is arrested for having left the army before his papers were signed. In custody, it is revealed that he killed the officer, and her faces the death penalty. I won't reveal the conclusion.

The characters are well drawn, including minor characters: army officers, soldiers, entertainers, Indians and miscellaneous blacks. From what I remember of my American history, it paints an accurate picture of America 150 years ago. I've called this 'a poetic, historical novel' because the narrator, Thomas, speaks in the most picturesque language, which is un-accustomed but very effective. It does, however, make the process of reading a little more laborious. Also, Thomas, occasionally draws on vocabulary which in very doubtful for an uneducated immigrant boy.

Having said that, Days Without End is a unique reading experience, and a good story, well-told.

What struck me was the openness to the vast landscapes of the west, the rhythm of the movement through the country, the sense of something both terrible about to happen or something glorious. The way he focuses the size and space of America through the story of the relationships at the heart. The voice and the idioms, the imagery, the feeling for nature and the changes of weather, we get savagery and tenderness, untamed wildness and humane emotion. The prose is animated with a well-shaped story taking in both wars with the Indians and the Civil War. At the centre of this tornado of feral doom is a gay relationship between two men, who in equilibrium, provide meaning, reason and purpose, lyricism and a lightness of touch to things.With a cast of memorable characters,vivid descriptions of landscape,evocations of military life,brutal warfare, cruelty and courage, and the spirit and soul of the book contained in a young Indian girl, the lovers adopt and save. A vision of early America done with great gusto and humour. It reminds you of Moby Dick and Huckleberry Finn.

I was charmed and fascinated by the author's interview on Fresh Air but couldn't make it through the first chapter of the Audible edition. After the boys are described as dancing the Charleston and Foxtrot in a Western saloon in the mid 1800s I had to doubt everything else in the book. Obviously it's fiction but how did an editor not notice these issues? I simply don't enjoy stories that are supposedly historical fiction but are full of historical inaccuracies. Too bad!

1850, Daggsville. Thomas McNulty (17, Irish, narrator, aka Thomasina), had left the great famine in Ireland behind & came to America to seek fame/fortune.
John Cole (aka Joanna) became Thomas’ traveling companion/confidant.
He 2 were inseparable.
There adventures/hardships & mishaps will take them all over the US.
1st. stop Ft. Kearney, CA.
They had joined the Union Army.
Mexican bandits were quite prevalent.

Apache, Comanche, Shoshone, Arapaho, Assiniboine, Teton, & Oglala Sioux Indian attacks & uprising was a common occurrence.
Killing buffalo for food, clothing & shelter was learned from them also.
Caught-His-Horse-First loved to make waves with the settlers.
Missouri was another stop for the duo.
The Pawnee & Crow Indians became their scouts.
Caught-His-Horse-First daughter Winonna was captured in a battle.
Mrs. Lavinia Neale (Irish, wife, nee Grady), was trying to civilize her.
Mr. Graham (interpreter) was trying to arrange a meeting with Major Tilson Neale husband) &
him. He wanted her back.

SD. John took her under his wing & gave her the surname Winonna Cole.
What will happen to Corporal Thomas McNulty?
& how about John Cole?

Warning: This book is for adults only & contains extreme violent or graphic adult content or profanity &/or sexually explicit scenarios. It may be offensive to some readers.

I did not receive any type of compensation for reading & reviewing this book. While I receive free books from publishers & authors, I am under no obligation to write a positive review. Only an honest one.

A very awesome book cover, great font & writing style. A very well written historical fiction book. It was very easy for me to read/follow from start/finish & never a dull moment. There were no grammar/typo errors, nor any repetitive or out of line sequence sentences. Lots of exciting scenarios, with several twists/turns & a great set of unique characters to keep track of. This could also make another great rugged western adventure movie, or better yet a mini TV series. There is no doubt in my mind this is a very easy rating of 5 stars.

Thank you for the free Goodreads; MakingConnections; Penguin Random House LLC. (Viking Books); AUCP; paperback book
Tony Parsons MSW (Washburn)

"Then do we praise the world for having good things in it." Sebastian Barry's newest novel, "Days Without End" is both gritty and lyrical. Set in the years surrounding America's Civil War, the book is narrated by Thomas McNulty, a young Irish immigrant. McNulty not only witnesses but participates in some of the most brutal and violent events of his time. Volunteering in the Indian Wars, fighting for the Union in the American Civil War, McNulty allows us to see how easy it is to be caught up in the bloodlust of hating those who are different. Moral decisions come in a multitude of shades of grey, and allegiances to people and to causes are tangled webs that can paralyze action as easily as inspire it.

Complex characters, a page-turner of a plot, and sentences to savor: this may be one of the best books of the year.

I’m super conflicted here. The writing was so stellar I want to contribute more points to writing quality to make up for some of the other lower scores. It was impossible not to think about Brokeback Mountain while reading this book, and so from that perspective, for me, originality suffered.

I liked so much about this book and was pulled in right from the beginning. There were lines which were such perfection I had to stop and listen to them again (speaking of listening, the narrator of the audio was fantastic. I haven’t figured out bookmarks in Audible, but there was something about cornbread which may have been the best line in the book.)

I think the book was trying a bit too hard to be too many things. Some decisions made on some “close calls” which just weren’t realistic for the time period, and ultimately we only really ever got to know one character with any depth. For me, those are the areas it suffered and kept it from being GREAT. Thematically and the writing certainly made it a contender for the Man Booker short list, the flaws, however, should preclude that

I have been reading Sebastian Barry's books for many years, he gets better and better. This is not my kind of story but I appreciate it for the beauty of his words and the fact that it is a wonderful story. I feel it is a man's book, war with the Indians, war with the rebels, fierce battles, death and suffering. He writes it all so well. In the midst of all of this horror his sense of humor pops up. It is this fact that keeps the subject matter bearable.
This is the story of two very young boys who are runaways, lonely and needy. At their lowest point they find each other. They bond for life and through thick and thin, they are always there for each other. The story is about their gritty and courageous lines. The book is populated with unforgettable characters. Many of these characters are met on the battleground and are short lived.There is an unlikely twist to this plot that I will not tell you. Makes me wonder if Barry is in the midst of a midlife crisis, just joking, but the twist is of a sexual nature.

Reminiscent of the surreal style of Cormack McCarthy’s ‘Border Trilogy’, Sebastian Barry’s Thomas McNulty experiences the full gamut of young life in early pioneer America, from Irish famine, migration and starvation on vessels docking into Quebec, through sensitive homophilial love, commercial transvestite floor shows, the atrocities of ethnic cleansing of American Indians, the horrors of the American civil war, yet all with abiding dedicated friendship running throughout.

Barry captures McNulty’s conversational reporting and moral reflections authentically and movingly, as he does the devastating war scenes. He allows a final redemptive event to limit the devastation of McNulty’s own life. It’s a great tale and a gripping read. As with any historical novel it would be interesting to know how much is researched based and therefore a quasi-historical account, and how much is Barry’s clearly very creative and inspiring imagination?

I have never before written a review for a book but feel compelled to do so this time. My leaning is definitely toward plot-driven novels but i was unexpectedly and intensely uplifted by the lyricism of the writing of Days Without End. The gentleness and subtlety set against the violent background literally took my breath away. I read constantly and have my entire life and have never before been so deeply moved by a book.

Days Without End was my first encounter with the renowned author Sebastian Barry. I was impressed. I listened to the audiobook version of the novel, and I am glad I did as the narrator, Aidan Kelly, was superb. He gave voice to young Thomas McNulty, the Irish migrant from Sligo, who tells us of his journey from the American Midwest to the West and back again; and through the Indian Wars to the Civil War and back. It is an often brutal but thoroughly engaging story of war, friendship, family and tender love. As dark as the subject matter often is, the book is also humorous and full of surprises. It is a blend of historical drama, action and romance, and the violence and sexual subject matter isn’t for everyone. But if you are looking for a terrific story, beautifully told, I can highly recommend this one.

. I can’t recall reading a novel with greater contrast between the beauty of the prose and the brutality described. Sebastian Barry’s novel titled, Days Without End, contains some of the finest prose I’ve read. Protagonist Thomas McNulty has left the famine in Ireland as a teenager and has arrived in the United States on a fever ship as the sole survivor ready to adapt to whatever it will take to survive. After serving as “ladies” with fellow teenager and friend, John Cole, the two friends join the Army to fight first in the Indian Wars, and then with the Union in the Civil War. Barry’s descriptive language led me to reread many sentences, and the atmosphere he builds in the narrative made me feel present with the action described. Readers who enjoy finely written literary fiction are those most likely to enjoy reading this novel.

Rating: Four-star (I like it)

A simply beautiful book about two young men in 1850s America, who fight in both the Indian Wars and the Civil War. Thomas and John are lovers, but that's only a small part of what the book is about. Written in Thomas's voice, it completely draws you into their experiences.

It's a short book but it's still a slow read because every sentence is crafted so beautifully that you want to take them all in. It also has very long paragraphs and often buries significant action in the middle of them, so if you're not paying close attention you suddenly realise that you missed something critical.

This has been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and I'd love to think it could win it, but alas it's probably too accessible to appeal to the judges.

I had never read this play before, but was convinced by the title that it referred to marriage. :) That guess was not far off, as the bulk of the action of this play focuses on the relationship between Jack and Elsa, and Jack's alter ego, Loving. The formatting in the Kindle version was a bit awkward at first...as was the playwrights device of placing Loving onstage as someone who talks to the audience, but is unacknowledged by the other characters. Once I understood what was going on, the format and the device caused no further trouble.

While the language sometimes feels overly ponderous and melodramatic, the play and speeches within are clearly written, and interesting material. I had a hard time establishing a connection to Jack, as his darkest thoughts, uttered by Loving, reveal him to be a small and selfish man. But, of course, the drama of the play consists of the struggle this man has between his better and baser selves. This causes a reader to reflect on their own struggle with these forces, and made the play extremely introspective, i at least for me.

Definitely worth the read and thought-provoking...though Hamlet it is not due to hackish, and sometimes clumsy, nature of the Loving device. For this reason, only 4 of 5 stars.

[...]
Thank you!

I didn’t get very far into the story before quitting but it seems very well written. It is probably worth a 4 star review so I won’t drag down it’s overall score just because I didn’t fully research the title before buying it. However, I do think the publisher should be more forthcoming about the book’s similarities to “Broke Back Mountain” in the plot summary. Most consumers know right away if that is something they would be interested in reading about.

This is the story of a young Irish immigrant caught up in the Indian and civil wars. His voice is fresh, unique and genuine and the story is violent, funny, sad, insighftful and simply a joy to read. Almost every sentence is thought provoking and this book deserves all the accolades it has received.

This is one of the most thoroughly captivating and consistently persuasive rendering of frontier life in 19th-Century America that one could hope to read. Absolutely magnificent storytelling, featuring a colorful cast of Native Americans, Irish immigrants and others--but none as memorable as the extraordinary narrator himself. Unforgettable.

Sebastian Barry puts a mixture of philosophical reflection, poetic description of nature, and demotic utterance into the mouth of his narrator, Thomas McNulty. Although the novel does not flinch from portraying the cruel and gratuitous slaughter of American Indians, it is not mainly a story of good and evil. With the exception of the protagonists, McNulty and Cole and their (informally) adopted daughter Winona, plus a couple of other characters, no one comes off especially well. And humans in groups are depicted as susceptible to the basest impulses. As McNulty remarks: “No such item as a virtuous people.” (p. 226)

Readers who enjoyed 'True Grit' (either movie version of the novel), or Cormac McCarthy's 'Blood Meridian' or 'All the Pretty Horses' will love Sebastian Barry's 'Days Without End.' Here is the American West as it probably was, with all its violence and chaos. And the description of the Civil War likewise has an authenticity to it few novels achieve. In some ways it may also remind readers of George Saunders' best-seller, 'Lincoln in the Bardo.' Both Saunders and Barry share a power of language few writers can claim.

What a refreshing novel! It was a little hard to dive into because of the narrative style, but once I was in I could not get out. A beautiful story about love in all forms and a US history lesson from a different than normal point of view. I didn't want this book to end and didn't want to read anything else when I was finished. I can't wait to read more by this author, as his writing style is beautiful.

A beautiful love story set against the Civil War and the war against the American Indian. The main characters suffer terrible hardships and see the horrors of our history but never lose their love of family and their loyalty. The writing is vivid and alive. It is a story about the true meaning of family and its ability to withstand any trial or test. An excellent read.

Jack Kerouac at the time of the civil war. Barry's been compared to Cormac Mc Carthy but he's a much better writer and balances the bleakness of the times with heart. The protagonist/narrator is an innocent despite the blood on his hands. Terrific, unforgettable character. The others are more stereotypical. Worth reading for the writing.

I found the writing simply amazing - to be able to stay in a vernacular and keep the reader intrigued through 300+ pages is a gift.
I would never choose to read about war but somehow the author drew me in with his interesting characters and I plundered through the book to the end. I gave this book a "good/great" rating because of the writing style and his character development, not because of the topic.

This book is one of the most beautiful love stories I've ever read. Set in a backdrop of civil war and the slaughter of First Nation peoples, it is the work of a literary master to bring out the best of this disparate group of characters.The relationships shared by this predominantly male cast are both heartbreaking and heartwarming. There is a simplicity of language and imagery that draws you in to Thomas and John's story and that makes you wish to journey with them. I couldn't help but fall in love with both the main characters and to celebrate their relationship and their love for their daughter.

Thank you, Sebastian Barry, for this book. In a world filled with the horrors of war and death, you've shown how love and laughter can exist in the same orbit. This is one of the best books I've read in years.

There's no denying that Days Without End is brilliant storytelling; it's almost too well done for my taste. Perhaps it's just the depressing times we live in, but I just couldn't stomach a brutal, unflinching tale of abject poverty, genocide, and civil war. 1/20/17 changed things too much.

A beautiful story of the time during and after the Civil War from the perspective of a gay soldier. Very fast writing style that sometimes though borders on stream of consciousness. It shows bluntly the life of a soldier and the many problems people had to deal with at the time.

I heard someone describe this as Brokeback Mountain goes to war:)
The descriptions of the countryside are so beautiful, the battle scenes horrible in their truth and the love between the two men subtle and true.
I didn't want it to end.

What a great novel! The voice of the narrator is completely compelling. He manages to sound "authentic" - as if he really is writing in the mid-19th century - AND to be easy to understand and enjoy. This story made me feel like I was seeing landscapes I've never visited - the descriptions are elegant and precise. Barry brings that same intensity to astounding battle scenes. I'm not usually engaged by war stories, but this had me staying up waaaay too late for several evenings after work, reading every word as fast as I could. It's beautiful, heart-breaking, and true in all the ways that matter. This is a remarkable immigrant story, and manages to show us things about America from a newcomer's eyes that make familiar stories feel clearer and new. I am going to give this book to lots of people this Christmas.

Beautiful writing throughout this book. Horrific scenes of what humans can do to each other ( that continue to current times.) The main characters , three people , torn from those they love by terrible circumstances . They create a new group who love each other and are loved in return. I had to speed read about 60 pages of different intervals , full of too much horror and detail . I did want to know how the story ended so I persisted and glad I did.

Spoiler Alert: the love story is between the two young men. Fine if the writer and reviewers were honest about it. Read the description and reviews and you'd never know it. Add to that the book's message that America's history is one of genocide and hate.
Waste of time and money. I want mine back.

Absolutely LOVED this book!!--also my first by Sebastian Barry--unforgettable!--wish it hadn't ended. The characters came alive on the pages--an amazing story! Will be reading more of Barry's books soon.

The writing is surprisingly poor. I cannot grasp why the book garnered great reviews. I really respect the labor required to create a work of art, and I do not enjoy being negative, but I was authentically puzzled by the enthusiasm.

The book did not match the ad in my opinion and ended up being something entirely different than I expected. It also rambles on and on as a philosophical treatise touting current day opinions, trying to place them into a past situation. Seemed the author has some hangups in terms of his own difficulties with God and is trying to push them over within a story frame. Would be better if he wrote his own philosophy and then we would know it for what it truly is.

What Happened to Sebastian Barry?

Where WAS he in this book? I could not find him.

He had become such an important writer to me, but this, this seemed to me drivel. What . . . why . . .

I actually became, and remain, angry, I think at his desertion of his country and cause and this cheap borrowing which seems to me . . . false.

NO.